History, Opinions, Imaginings

Ending the Drought: Super Bowl 31

20 years ago today, the Packers ended the longest championship drought in franchise history by beating the New England Patriots 35-20 in Super Bowl XXXI. In between the team’s victory over the Raiders in SB II and the win over New England stretched 28 mostly futile years of frustration for Packer fans. However, other teams have gone through worse as this table of all 32 NFL franchise demonstrates:

Team

Non-title streak

Years

Post-

Seasons

% Post -season Years

Longest Playoffs Drought

Losing season streak

Arizona Cardinals

69

1948-2016

9

13%

25

9

Detroit Lions

59

1958-2016

12

20%

12

10

Philadelphia Eagles

56

1961-2016

20

36%

17

7

Minnesota Vikings

56

1961-2016

28

50%

7

3

Tennessee Titans

55

1962-2016

19

35%

8

6

San Diego Chargers

53

1964-2016

15

28%

13

7

Buffalo Bills

51

1966-2016

14

27%

17

9

Atlanta Falcons

50*

1966-2015

13

26%

12

8

Cleveland Browns

49

1965-95 1999-2016

15

31%

14

9

Cincinnati Bengals

49

1968-2016

14

29%

14

6

New York Jets

48

1969-2016

13

27%

11

3

LA Rams

47

1952-98

18

38%

11

9

Kansas City Chiefs

46

1971-2016

15

33%

15

6

Miami Dolphins

43

1974-2016

18

42%

8

4

New Orleans Saints

42

1967-2008

6

14%

20

12

Pittsburgh Steelers

41

1933-73

3

7%

23

8

New England Patriots

41

1960-2000

10

24%

13

7

Washington Redskins

39

1943-81

7

18%

25

9

Denver Broncos

37

1960-96

11

30%

12

10

Seattle Seahawks

37

1976-2012

12

32%

10

4

Oakland Raiders

36

1981-2016

9

25%

14

7

Indianapolis Colts

35

1971-2005

12

34%

9

9

Chicago Bears

31

1986-2016

10

32%

6

5

San Francisco 49ers

31

1950-80

4

13%

12

4

New York Giants

29

1957-85

8

28%

17

8

Green Bay Packers

28

1968-95

5

18%

10

5

Tampa Bay Bucs

26

1976-2001

7

27%

14

14

Washington Redskins

25

1992-2016

5

20%

6

3

Pittsburgh Steelers

25

1980-2004

13

52%

4

2

Jacksonville Jaguars

22

1995-2016

6

27%

9

6

San Francisco 49ers

22

1995-2016

9

41%

8

6

Carolina Panthers

22

1995-2016

7

32%

5

3

Dallas Cowboys

22

1995-2016

9

41%

4

3

Chicago Bears

21

1964-84

3

14%

13

7

St. Louis Rams

17

2000-16

4

24%

12

10

Green Bay Packers

16

1945-60

1

6%

15

4

Houston Texans

15

2002-16

4

27%

9

5

Baltimore Ravens

11

2001-11

7

64%

2

1

Please note that the table includes the worst stretch for each franchises plus a handful of secondary title-less periods of at least 16 years for some squads. Within these fallow periods, the Packers percentage of making the playoffs is unimpressive, although the Steelers, Cardinals, Saints, Bears and 49ers have done even worse.

Green Bay’s worst streak of ten years without appearing in the postseason from 1983-1992 is bad, but does not compare to the Cardinals, Redskins and Steelers…although a good portion of those 20+ year streaks (and non-playoff percentage) occurred before the expanded playoffs began in 1967. The painful 20-year streak by the Saints, though, occurred entirely within the expanded format. The Bills have the longest current streak at 17 years.

The Packers worst streak of five consecutive losing seasons from 1973-77 is fairly ordinary and does not compare to the Bucs’ 14, the Saints 12, or the 10 of the Broncos, Lions and Rams. The Rams’ streak is currently running.

Aside from the 28-year length of the championship-less streak, it was not the worst period in team history, though. Even if we shorten the period to the 24 years before the arrival of Ron Wolf turned the franchise around, the winning percentage from 1968-91 was .423 (146-201-9). Sadly, the 11-year dark ages from 1948-58 “boasted” a winning percentage of .288 (37-93-2).

25 years of watching teams run by Wolf and Ted Thompson, coached by Mike Holmgren, Mike McCarthy and others and quarterbacked by Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers has blurred the memory of the lost decades of the 1970s and 1980s, but they were truly dispiriting.